technical documentation for system center 2012 virtual machine manager

VMM Information Experience Team Summary: Virtual Machine Manager VMM is a management solution for the virtualized datacenter, enabling you to configure and manage your virtualization ho

VMM Information Experience Team

Summary: Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) is a management solution for the

virtualized datacenter, enabling you to configure and manage your virtualization host, networking, and storage resources in order to create and deploy virtual machines and services to private clouds that you have created

Category: Guide

Applies to: System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and Virtual

Machine Manager in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1

Source: TechNet Library (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=263937)

E-book publication date: April 2013

Copyright © 2013 by Microsoft Corporation 

All rights reserved No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred

This book expresses the author’s views and opinions The information contained in this book is provided without any express, statutory, or implied warranties Neither the authors, Microsoft Corporation, nor its resellers, or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this book. 

Contents

Getting Started with System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager 2

System Requirements for System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager 26

Deploying System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager 47

Upgrading to System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager 89

Upgrading to VMM in System Center 2012 SP1 115

Administering System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager 135

Configuring Security in System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager 464

Troubleshooting System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager 479

Glossary for System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager 480

Microsoft Server Application Virtualization 484

Getting Started with System Center 2012 - Virtual

Machine Manager

The following topics provide information to help you get started with learning about Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)

 Overview of System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

 What's New in System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

 Resources for System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

Overview of System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) is a management solution for the virtualized datacenter, enabling you

to configure and manage your virtualization host, networking, and storage resources in order to create and deploy virtual machines and services to private clouds that you have created

Deploying VMM

A deployment of VMM consists of the following:

VMM management server The computer on which the Virtual Machine

Manager service runs and which processes commands and controls communications with the VMM database, the library server, and virtual machine hosts

VMM configuration information

VMM management server to centrally view and manage physical and virtual resources, such as virtual machine hosts, virtual machines, services, and library resources

VMM library and VMM library server The catalog of resources (for example, virtual

shell that makes available the cmdlets that perform all functions in VMM

VMM Self-Service Portal (optional)

Note

In System Center 2012 Service Pack 1

(SP1), the VMM Self-Service Portal has

been removed

A web site that users who are assigned to a self-service user role can use to deploy and manage their own virtual machines to private clouds

For information about deploying VMM, see Deploying System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

Configuring Security for VMM

You can perform the following tasks to configure security in VMM

Create user roles Create self-service users,

delegated administrators, and read-only administrators to ensure users can perform the appropriate actions on the appropriate resources in VMM

Creating User Roles in VMM

Configure Run As accounts Create Run As accounts to provide

the necessary credentials for performing operations in VMM

Configuring Run As Accounts in VMM

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM

VMM enables you to configure and manage the following resources These resources need to be

configured before you can deploy virtual machines and services to a private cloud or to virtual machine hosts

Virtual machine hosts Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix

XenServer, and VMware ESX hosts and host clusters on which you will deploy virtual machines and services

You can create host groups to organize your hosts based on physical site location, resource allocation, or some other criteria

Adding and Managing Hyper-V Hosts and Host Clusters in VMM

Managing Citrix XenServer Overview

Managing VMware ESX Hosts Overview

Creating Host Groups Overview

logical networks, IP address pools, and load balancers that are used

to deploy virtual machines and services

Configuring Networking Overview

storage classifications, logical units, and storage pools that are made available to Hyper-V hosts and host clusters

Configuring Storage Overview

Library servers and library shares A catalog of resources (for

example, virtual hard disks, templates, and profiles) that are used to deploy virtual machines and services

Configuring the Library Overview

Deploying Virtual Machines and Services in a Private Cloud in VMM

After you have configured your hosts and your networking, storage, and library resources, you can perform the following tasks to deploy virtual machines and services in VMM

In VMM, a service is a set of virtual machines that are configured and deployed together and are

managed as a single entity For example, a deployment of a multi-tier line of business application

Create private clouds Combine hosts and networking,

storage, and library resources together to create a private cloud

Creating a Private Cloud in VMM Overview

Create sequenced applications Use Microsoft Server Application

Virtualization (Server App-V) to sequence applications to be deployed by VMM

Microsoft Server Application Virtualization

Create profiles Create profiles (hardware

profiles, guest operating system profiles, application profiles, and SQL Server profiles) that will be used in a virtual machine template to deploy virtual machines

For example, an application profile provides instructions for installing Microsoft Server App-V applications, Microsoft Web Deploy applications, and Microsoft SQL Server data-tier applications (DACs), and for running scripts when deploying a virtual machine as part of a service

Creating Profiles in VMM

Create virtual machine Create virtual machine templates How to Create a Virtual Machine

Task Description For more information

templates that can be used to create new

virtual machines and to configure tiers in services

Template

Create service templates Use the Service Template

Designer to create service templates that can be used to deploy services

Creating Service Templates in VMM

Deploy virtual machines Deploy virtual machines to

private clouds or hosts by using virtual machine templates

Creating and Deploying Virtual Machines in VMM

Deploy services Deploy services to private clouds

or hosts by using a service template

Creating and Deploying Services

in VMM

Scale out a service Add additional virtual machines

to a deployed service

Scaling Out a Service in VMM

Update a service Make changes to a deployed

service

Updating a Service in VMM

Managing the VMM Environment

You can perform the following tasks to manage the servers, virtual machines, and services in your VMM environment

Manage update compliance of

servers (for example, Hyper-V

hosts and library servers)

Scan servers (for example,

Hyper-V hosts and library servers) for update compliance, view update compliance status, and perform update remediation by using a Windows Server Update Services

Managing Fabric Updates in VMM

Task Description For more information

(WSUS) server

Monitor the health and

performance of virtual machines

and their hosts and provide

reports

Use Operations Manager with VMM and enable Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO)

Configuring Operations Manager Integration with VMM

What's New in System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

This topic provides categorized lists of several tasks that you can perform in System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) These are followed by a section that describes what was added specifically in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1), What’s New in System Center 2012 SP1

For an overview of VMM, see Overview of System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

Deploying VMM

Install a highly available VMM management

server

Installing a Highly Available VMM Management Server

Configuring Security in VMM

Create Run As accounts to provide the

necessary credentials for performing

operations in VMM

Configuring Run As Accounts in VMM

Use the new capabilities available to the

Delegated Administrator and Self-Service User

roles to give users the ability to perform tasks

that are new to VMM

Creating User Roles in VMM

Create a Read-Only Administrator user role Configuring Run As Accounts in VMM

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM

Configure network options such as virtual

network adapters and logical switches during

the discovery of physical computers on the

network (for example, bare-metal computers)

and automatic operating system installation in

order to convert them into managed Hyper-V

hosts

Adding Physical Computers as Hyper-V Hosts in VMM Overview

Use the VMM console to create a Hyper-V

cluster from two or more standalone Hyper-V

hosts that are managed by VMM

Creating and Modifying Hyper-V Host Clusters

in VMM

Use Citrix XenServer as a virtual machine host Managing Citrix XenServer Overview

Use the VMM console to configure networking

resources , such as logical networks, IP address

pools, and load balancers, to be used to deploy

virtual machines and services

Configuring Networking in VMM Overview

Use the VMM console to configure the storage

resources, such as storage classifications,

logical units, and storage pools, to be used by

Hyper-V hosts and host clusters

Configuring Storage in VMM Overview

Scan servers, such as Hyper-V hosts and library

servers, for update compliance based on an

update baseline, view update compliance

status, and perform update remediation by

using a Windows Server Update Services

(WSUS) server

Managing Fabric Updates in VMM

Perform resource balancing by migrating

virtual machines within host clusters that

support live migration (Dynamic Optimization)

Configuring Dynamic Optimization and Power Optimization in VMM

Task For more information

Turn off hosts that are not needed to meet

resource requirements within a host cluster

and then turn the hosts back on when they are

needed again (Power Optimization)

Configuring Dynamic Optimization and Power Optimization in VMM

Deploying Virtual Machines and Services in a Private Cloud in VMM

Create a private cloud by combining hosts and

networking, storage, and library resources

together

Creating a Private Cloud in VMM Overview

Use Server Application Virtualization (Server

App-V) to sequence applications to be

deployed by VMM

Microsoft Server Application Virtualization

Create a custom capability profile to limit the

resources that are used by virtual machines

that are created in a private cloud

How to Create a Private Cloud from Host Groups

Create an application profile that provides

instructions for installing Microsoft Server

App-V applications, Microsoft Web Deploy 2.0

applications, and Microsoft SQL Server

data-tier application framework (DAC Fx) 2.0, as well

as for running scripts when you deploy a virtual

machine as part of a service

How to Create an Application Profile [VMM 2012]

Create a SQL Server profile that provides

instructions for customizing an instance of

Microsoft SQL Server for a SQL Server DAC

application when you deploy a virtual machine

Task For more information

using virtual machine templates

Use the Service Template Designer to create

service templates that can be used to deploy

services

Creating Service Templates in VMM

Deploy services to private clouds or hosts by

using a service template

Creating and Deploying Services in VMM

Scale out a service: Add additional virtual

machines to a deployed service

Scaling Out a Service in VMM

Update a service: Make changes to a deployed

service

Updating a Service in VMM

Export and import service templates and

virtual machine templates

Exporting and Importing Service Templates in VMM

What’s New in System Center 2012 SP1

Here are some general changes in VMM in the System Center 2012 SP1 release that you might need to consider:

 The VMM Self-Service Portal is no longer supported in System Center 2012 SP1 Instead, we

recommend that you use System Center 2012 SP1 - App Controller as the self-service portal

solution For more information about App Controller, see App Controller

 Self-service users can now use the VMM console instead of the VMM Self-Service Portal to perform tasks such as deploying virtual machines and services

 High availability with N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is no longer supported VMM is compatible with virtual (synthetic) fiber channels that are configured for virtual machines in Hyper-V

The following tables summarize VMM enhancements and other changes in the System Center 2012 SP1 release

Enhancements to the matrix of supported For a complete list of supported and required

Deploying VMM For more information

versions of operating systems and other

required software

configurations, see System Requirements for System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

Integration with Windows Server 2012 which

delivers numerous enhancements to the

Microsoft Hyper-V features, as follows:

 Large virtual machines

 Clusters that can support a larger numbers

of nodes

 Storage management through SMI-S

(Storage Management Initiative –

Specification)

See the Supported Storage Arrays section in

Configuring Storage Overview

Ability to manage vSphere 5.1 and Citrix

XenServer 6.0

For more information about Citrix, see

Managing Citrix XenServer Overview For more information about vSphere see How to Add VMware ESX Hosts to VMM and How to Configure Network Settings on a VMware ESX Host

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM -

Networks

For more information

New model for virtual machine networking,

including network virtualization and virtual

local area networks (VLANs) for network

isolation

Network VirtualizationHow to Create a VM Network in System Center

2012 SP1

Management of the Hyper-V extensible switch,

including deployment and configuration of

virtual switch extensions using a new logical

switch concept

How to Add a Virtual Switch Extension Manager in System Center 2012 SP1

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM -

Networks

For more information

Support for network virtualization that includes

support for using Dynamic Host Configuration

Protocol (DHCP) to assign customer addresses

using Network Virtualization with Generic

Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) to virtualize

the IP address of a virtual machine

Network Virtualization

Software-defined networking with support for

Hyper-V network virtualization and switch

extension management This allows a constant

network configuration in the datacenter

Configuring VM Networks and Gateways in System Center 2012 SP1

Configuring Ports and Switches for VM Networks in System Center 2012 SP1How to Add a Virtual Switch Extension Manager in System Center 2012 SP1

Introduction of a logical switch that allows you

to manage individual switch instances across

multiple Hyper-V hosts as a single entity

How to Create a Logical Switch in System Center 2012 SP1

Ability to deploy and manage third-party

switch extensions, such as Cisco 1KV and

InMon For organizations that have

investments in these third-party products,

these can be integrated into VMM

How to Create a Logical Switch in System Center 2012 SP1

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM -

Storage

For more information

Support for file shares that leverage the new

3.0 version of the Server Message Block (SMB)

protocol that is introduced in Windows Server

2012 VMM in this release includes support for

designating network file shares on Windows

Server 2012 computers as the storage location

For more information about SMB 3.0 in Windows Server 2012, see Server Message Block Overview

For more information about how to create a highly available SMB 3.0 file share, see Scale-Out File Server for Application Data Overview,

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM -

Storage

For more information

for virtual machine files, such as configuration,

virtual hard disk (.vhd/.vhdx) files and

checkpoints

SMB 3.0 file shares provide the following

benefits when they are used with VMM in this

release:

 Hyper-V over SMB supports file servers and

storage with improved efficiency compared

to traditional storage area networks

(SANs)

 If you use SMB 3.0 file shares as the

storage locations for virtual machine files,

you can "live migrate" virtual machines

that are running between two standalone

Hyper-V hosts or between two stand-alone

Hyper-V host clusters Because the storage

location is a shared location that is

available from the source and destination

hosts, only the virtual machine state must

transfer between hosts

You can create SMB 3.0 file shares on

standalone Windows Server 2012 file servers

and on clustered Windows Server 2012 file

servers If you use a standalone file server, you

can designate an SMB 3.0 file share as the

virtual machine storage location on a Windows

Server 2012 Hyper-V host cluster However,

this is not a highly available solution

and steps 1 and 2 of the Deploy Scale-Out File Server scenario that is linked to from that topic

The new Windows Standards-Based Storage

Management service replaces the Microsoft

Storage Management Service in

System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager The new service

uses the Windows Storage Management

Configuring Storage Overview

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM -

Storage

For more information

WMI-based programming interface that is

included in Windows Server 2012 This new API

enables you to discover storage by using

multiple provider types

Important

The Windows Storage Management

API supersedes the Virtual Disk Service

(VDS) interface Therefore, if you are

using a storage array that uses only the

VDS hardware provider (and not

SMI-S), storage area network (SAN) transfer

capabilities will no longer be available

A SAN transfer enables you to migrate

a virtual machine from one location to

another when the virtual hard disk is

located on a storage array The logical

unit number (LUN) that contains the

virtual machine is remapped from the

source computer to the destination

computer instead of transferring the

files over the network

In this release, VMM supports the following

types of storage providers and arrays:

 SMI-S CIM–XML, which existed in

System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager For more

information about the supported storage

arrays, see the Supported Storage Arrays

section of Configuring Storage Overview

 Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)

Supported array: Dell EqualLogic PS Series

using iSCSI

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM -

Storage

For more information

Support for auto (dynamic) iSCSI target

systems, such as the Dell EqualLogic PS Series

System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager supports only static

iSCSI target systems

Support for thin provisioning of logical units

through VMM Your storage array must

support thin provisioning And thin

provisioning must be enabled for a storage

pool by your storage administrator

Integration with third-party SANs and

file-based storage on Windows Server 2012 File

server

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM -

Hyper-V

For more information

Support for using a virtual hard disk that is in

the vhdx format as the base operating system

image

How to Discover Physical Computers and Deploy as Hyper-V Hosts in VMM

Operating system deployment that utilizes

deep discovery and Consistent Device Naming

(CDN) CDN allows VMM to predictably assign

network interface controllers (NICs) to the

correct networks and teams

During the discovery process, you can run deep

discovery to see more detailed information

about the physical computer hardware before

you deploy the operating system In this

release, deep discovery functionality is only

partially enabled You can view the physical

How to Discover Physical Computers and Deploy as Hyper-V Hosts in VMM

How to Create a Host Profile in VMM

Configuring Fabric Resources in VMM -

Hyper-V

For more information

network adapter information, information

about the CPU, and the amount of memory

You can configure network options such as

logical switches, and you can change the

settings for the network adapter that VMM

automatically designates as the management

Support for Host vNIC configuration

Support for startup disk selection as part of

operating system deployment

Enhanced default auto disk selection logic as

part of operating system deployment

Support for deployment of services to virtual

machines in a domain or workgroup that does

not have a trust relationship with the domain

of the VMM management server

Preparing to Create Services in VMM

In Hyper-V only, support for the deployment of

services to virtual machines that are not

connected, where the service instance does

not have network connectivity to the VMM

management server, to a VMM library server,

Preparing to Create Services in VMM

Virtual Machines and Services For more information

or to both

When deploying a virtual machine as part of a

service and creating a SQL Server profile,

added support for SQL Server 2012 as an

instance of Microsoft SQL Server

How to Create a SQL Server Profile

Application profiles:

 For the deployment of application

packages, added support for updated

versions of the following applications:

 Web Deploy 3.0

 Data-tier Application Framework (DAC

Fx) 3.0

 Server App-V SP1

 Support for application profiles that run

multiple scripts before and after installing

an application on a virtual machine, and if

a script fails, the capability to rerun if

specified to do so in the profile

 Support for deploying MSDeploy packages

to existing Internet Information Services

(IIS) servers, whether they are virtual or

physical, managed by VMM or not (Web

Application Host)

How to Create an Application Profile

Support for adding Windows Server 2012 roles

and features when creating and deploying

services, such as the Windows Server Update

Services role

Support for IIS application hosts, which allow

you to deploy websites into pre-existing IIS

Virtual Machines and Services For more information

disk format that is introduced in Windows

Server 2012 This new format is referred to as

VHDX Compared to the older VHD format,

VHDX has a much larger storage capacity of up

to 64 TB The VHDX format also provides data

corruption protection during power failures

Additionally, it offers improved alignment of

the virtual hard disk format to perform well on

large-sector physical disks

Support for VHDX includes the following:

 You can convert a virtual hard disk for a

virtual machine that is deployed to a

Windows Server 2012-based host from the

.vhd to vhdx virtual hard disk format The

conversion includes any associated

checkpoints

 If you create a new virtual machine with a

blank virtual hard disk, VMM determines

whether the format should be vhd or

.vhdx, depending on the operating system

of the host that is selected during

placement If it is a Windows Server 2012–

based host, VMM uses the vhdx format If

it is a Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1–

based host, VMM uses the vhd format

 If you provision a physical computer as a

Hyper-V host, you can specify a vhdx file

as the image for the base operating

system

 You can use VMM to "rapidly provision"

any virtual machines that use VHDX-based

virtual hard disks from SAN-copy capable

templates

 A VMM library server that runs Windows

Server 2012 automatically indexes vhdx

files

 In addition to the small and large blank

VHDX format in Windows Server 2012, see

Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk Format Overview

Rapid Provisioning of Virtual Machines Using SAN Copy Overview

Virtual Machines and Services For more information

.vhd files that were available in previous

versions of VMM, the VMM library in

System Center 2012 SP1 also contains both

a small (16 gigabytes (GB)) and a large (60

GB) blank vhdx files

Support for provisioning a physical computer

as a Hyper-V host When you provision a

physical computer as a Hyper-V host, you can

use a Windows Server 2012-based virtual hard

disk that is in the vhdx or vhd format as the

base operating system image

For background information about adding a physical computer as a Hyper-V host, see

Adding Physical Computers as Hyper-V Hosts Overview

Linux-based virtual machines are now fully

supported with the following:

 Added settings for Linux-specific operating

system specialization when you are

creating a Linux-based virtual machine

template

Important

These settings are supported only

when the Linux virtual machine is

deployed on Hyper-V

 Ability to include a Linux virtual machine

template in a service template that deploys

a multi-tier application or service

 Updated Windows PowerShell cmdlets to

support this new functionality

How to Create a Virtual Machine Template Requirements for Linux-Based Virtual Machines

Ability to configure availability options for

virtual machines on Hyper-V host clusters by

using the VMM console, without having to

open Failover Cluster Manager

Configuring Availability Options for Virtual Machines

Live Migration For more information

Live migration outside a cluster This is in

addition to supporting live migration within a

cluster Live migration outside a cluster allows

you to perform live migration between two

standalone computers that are not cluster

nodes

For more information about live migration in Windows Server 2012, see the following topics:

 Virtual Machine Live Migration Overview

 Virtual Machine Storage Migration Overview

 Migrating virtual machines and storage in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager

Live migration between nodes in two different

clusters You can migrate between nodes

within a cluster, or between nodes in different

clusters

Migrating virtual machines and storage in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager How to configure live virtual machine and storage migration in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager

Storage migration, which allows for the

migration of virtual machine storage You can

migrate storage in order to update the physical

storage available in Hyper-V, or to mitigate

bottlenecks in storage performance Storage

can be added to either a standalone computer

or a Hyper-V cluster Then, virtual machines

can be moved to the new storage while they

continue to run

Migrating virtual machines and storage in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager How to configure live virtual machine and storage migration in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager

Live VSM By using live virtual system migration

(VSM) you can migrate both virtual machines

and storage in a single action

Migrating virtual machines and storage in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager How to configure live virtual machine and storage migration in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager

Concurrent live migration You can perform

multiple concurrent live migrations of virtual

machines and storage The allowable number

of concurrent live migrations can be configured

Migrating virtual machines and storage in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager How to configure live virtual machine and

Live Migration For more information

manually Attempted concurrent live

migrations in excess of the limit will be queued

storage migration in System Center SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager

Integration of third-party user interface (UI)

add-ins for the VMM console that can extend

the functionality of the console For example,

you can create console add-ins that will allow

you to do the following:

 Add ribbon entries in the VMM console to

launch web browsers and Windows

applications directly from the ribbon

 Enable new actions or additional

configuration for VMM objects by writing

an application that uses context that is

passed regarding the selected VMM

objects

 Embed custom Windows Presentation

Foundation (WPF) UI or web portals

directly into the VMM console’s main

views to provide a more fully integrated

experience

Virtual Machine Manager Add-in SDK in the TechNet Wiki

Several significant performance enhancements

to the VMM console Load times are decreased

and the performance of sorting and filtering

views is significantly improved For viewing job

history, jobs are now loaded incrementally and

the views have a richer set of data-filtering

options, reducing the effect of large sets of

jobs on console performance

Overview pages in the VMM console now

display various reports about usage and

capacity metrics for services, tenants and

VMM Console For more information

clouds

Performance and scalability:

 Increased the scale of a VMM management

server to be able to manage 1000 hosts

and 25,000 virtual machines

Note

Scale limits remain consistent no

matter which supported

hypervisors are used VMM can

manage 25,000 virtual machines,

wherever they are located

 Support for a 64 node cluster

 Performance enhancement to the VMM

console

Integration with Operation Manager as follows:

 Ability to use Operations Manager to view

information related to application hosts,

load balancers, and user roles while also

being able to monitor virtual machines,

services, host systems, network adapters,

and other elements of the fabric

 Receive notifications from Operations

Manager if the load on a cloud has

exceeded a chosen threshold of fabric

capacity Concurrently review other clouds

for available excess capacity that can be

reallocated to meet the demand

 Generate reports that track the resource

usage of each configured service or service

Configuring Operations Manager Integration with VMM

Additional Improvements For more information

user, to aid in capacity planning

Support for updateable Help for VMM cmdlets Type the following command in a command

shell:

Get-Help about_VMM_2012_Updating_Help

infrastructure This enables two different business groups that are using VMM to use the same IP

addressing scheme without conflict In addition, network virtualization provides isolation so that only virtual machines on a specific virtual network infrastructure can communicate with each other

Network virtualization in Windows Server 2012 is designed to remove the constraints of VLAN and hierarchical IP address assignment for virtual machine provisioning This enables flexibility in virtual machine placement because the virtual machine can keep its IP address regardless of which host it is placed on Placement is not limited by physical IP subnet hierarchies or VLAN configurations

To virtualize the network in Windows Server 2012, each virtual machine is assigned two IP addresses as follows:

 A customer address This IP address is visible to the virtual machine and is used by customers to

communicate with the virtual machine

 A provider address This IP address is used by the Hyper-V computer that hosts the virtual machine

It is not visible to the virtual machine

In this release, you can virtualize the IP address of a virtual machine by using Network Virtualization with

Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) In NVGRE, all of the virtual machines packets are encapsulated

with a new header before they are sent on the physical network IP encapsulation offers better

scalability because all of the virtual machines on a specific host can share the same provider IP address VMM creates the necessary IP address mappings for virtual machines to take advantage of the network virtualization capabilities in Windows Server 2012 To assign provider addresses, VMM uses an IP

address pool that is associated with a logical network To assign customer addresses, VMM uses an IP address pool that is associated with a virtual machine subnet that is, in turn, associated with a virtual machine network

In this release, you can now assign customer addresses through DHCP or by using static IP addresses When you create an IP address pool for a virtual machine subnet, the pool is automatically enabled to provision IP addresses by either mechanism For DHCP to work correctly, the new DHCPv4 Server Switch Extension is required on all Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V hosts

For more information about network virtualization in Windows Server 2012, see Hyper-V Network Virtualization Overview

Resources for System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

The following resources are available for Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)

Evaluation software for System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager

Intended for evaluation and deployment planning purposes only

Microsoft Download Center

Documentation for VMM

The following documentation is available for VMM:

VMM technical documentation Provides content about VMM for

the following areas:

Virtual Machine Manager in the TechNet Library

Name Description Location

VMM technical documentation

(download)

Provides a downloadable document that contains most of the VMM content that is available in the TechNet Library

Microsoft Download Center

VMM cmdlet reference

(download)

Provides the VMM cmdlet help topics

Microsoft Download Center

Microsoft Server Application

Virtualization (Server App-V)

documentation

Provides information about using Server App-V to sequence applications that can be deployed by System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager

Microsoft Server Application Virtualization in the TechNet Library

Release Notes for VMM in

System Center 2012 Service

Pack 1 (SP1)

Provides information about issues and workarounds for VMM in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

Release Notes for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Virtual Machine Manager

Other resources

To ask a question about or to discuss VMM, go to System Center Virtual Machine Manager Forums

For blog posts from the VMM engineering team, see System Center: Virtual Machine Manager

Engineering Team Blog

For more information about Virtual Machine Manager, see System Center Virtual Machine Manager TechCenter

System Requirements for System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

This section provides information about system requirements and supported operating systems to install and run Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)

The following topics are covered:

 System Requirements: VMM Management Server

 System Requirements: VMM Console

 System Requirements: VMM Self-Service Portal

 System Requirements: VMM Database

 System Requirements: VMM Library Server

 System Requirements: Virtual Machine Hosts

 System Requirements: Hyper-V Host Deployment to a Bare-Metal Computer

 System Requirements: Update Management

 System Requirements: Monitoring and Reporting

For more information about system requirements for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1), see

System Requirements for System Center 2012 SP1

System Requirements: VMM Management Server

Hardware requirements

The following tables list the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for the VMM

management server, based on the number of hosts that you manage

Managing up to 150 hosts

Hardware component Minimum Recommended

Processor Pentium 4, 2 GHz (x64) Dual-Processor, Dual-Core, 2.8

Hard disk space - with a local, full

version of Microsoft SQL Server

If you use the VMM management server as a library server, you must provide additional hard

disk space to store objects For more information about the requirements for a VMM library

server, see System Requirements: VMM Library Server

Managing more than 150 hosts

Processor Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz (x64) Dual-Processor, Dual-Core,

3.6 GHz or greater (x64)

For better performance when you manage more than 150 hosts, it is recommended that you use a dedicated computer for the VMM management server and do the following:

 Add one or more remote computers as library servers and do not use the default library share on the VMM management server

 Use a version of SQL Server that is installed on a different computer for the VMM database

Software requirements

Note

Note

Before you install the VMM management server, you must install the following software

A supported operating system For more information, see Supported operating

systems in this topic

Windows Remote Management (WinRM)

service

WinRM 2.0 is included in Windows Server 2008 R2, and by default, the Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) service is set to start automatically (delayed start)

Note

If the Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) service is not started, the setup process will display

an error during the prerequisites check The service must be started before setup can continue

WinRM is included in Windows Server 2012, and by default, the Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) service is set

to start automatically

Microsoft NET Framework:

 For System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager: At least

Microsoft NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack

1 (SP1)

 For VMM in System Center 2012 SP1:

Microsoft NET Framework 4, or Microsoft

.NET Framework 4.5

To obtain Microsoft NET Framework:

 On a computer that runs Windows Server 2008 R2, if the Microsoft NET Framework 3.5.1 feature is not installed (it

is not installed by default), the VMM setup wizard will install the feature

 Microsoft NET Framework 4 is included in Windows Server 2012

 Microsoft NET Framework 4.5 is available

at the Visual Studio 2012 Download page

Windows deployment and installation kit: To obtain a Windows deployment and

Software Notes

 For System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager: Windows

Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for

Windows 7

 For VMM in System Center 2012 SP1:

Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit

(ADK) for Windows 8

installation kit:

 Windows AIK is available on the Microsoft

Download Center To install the Windows AIK, you can download the ISO file, write the ISO file to a DVD by using a third party tool, and then install the Windows AIK from the DVD

 Windows ADK is available at the Microsoft

Download Center When you install

Windows ADK, select the Deployment

Tools and the Windows Preinstallation Environment features

A supported version of SQL Server For more information about the supported

versions of SQL Server, see System Requirements: VMM Database

Supported operating systems

For System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager

Windows Server 2008 R2 (full

installation)

Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter

Service Pack 1 or earlier

Additional information

 The computer on which you install the VMM management server must be a member of an Active Directory domain

 The name of the computer on which you install the VMM management server cannot exceed 15 characters

The computer name cannot contain the character string of –SCVMM-, but you can use the character string of SCVMM in the computer name For example, the computer name can be

SEASCVMMLAB, but the computer name cannot be SEA-SCVMM-LAB

 If you install the VMM management server in a virtual machine and you use the Dynamic Memory feature of Hyper-V, you must set the startup RAM for the virtual machine to be at least 2048 MB

 VMM allows you to install a highly available VMM management server on a failover cluster that runs any supported operating system

For information about how to install a VMM management server, see Installing a VMM Management Server and Installing a Highly Available VMM Management Server

System Requirements: VMM Console

Hardware requirements

The following requirements are the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for the VMM console, based on the number of hosts that you manage

Managing up to 150 hosts

Managing more than 150 hosts

Note

Hardware component Minimum

 For System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager: Windows

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=262

217

Microsoft NET Framework:

 For System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager: At least

Microsoft NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack

1 (SP1)

 For VMM in System Center 2012 SP1:

Microsoft NET Framework 4, or Microsoft

.NET Framework 4.5

 For the VMM Console in System Center

2012 SP1: Microsoft NET Framework 4.5 is

required for computers running Windows

 On a computer that runs Windows 7, Microsoft NET Framework 3.5.1 is installed by default

 On a computer that runs Windows Server 2008 R2, if the Microsoft NET Framework 3.5.1 feature is not installed (it is not installed by default), the VMM setup wizard will install the feature

 On a computer that runs Windows 8 or/and Windows Server 2012, Microsoft NET Framework 4 is included

 Microsoft NET Framework 4.5 is available at

Software Notes

Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 the Visual Studio 2012 Download page

Supported operating systems

Operating system for

System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service

Pack 1 or earlier (full installation)

Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service

Pack 1 (full installation)

Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter

Windows Server 2012 Standard and Datacenter 64bit

Windows 8 Client Professional and Enterprise 32bit and 64bit

System Requirements: VMM Self-Service Portal

In System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1), the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Self-Service Portal has been removed

Hardware Requirements

The following tables provide the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for the VMM Self-Service Portal based on the number of concurrent connections that are maintained on the Web server

Maintaining up to 10 concurrent connections

Maintaining more than 10 concurrent connections

Software Requirement Notes

A supported operating system For more information, see Supported

Operating Systems later in this topic

Web Server (IIS) You must install the Web Server (IIS) role and

the following Web Server (IIS) features:

 IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility

 IIS 6 WMI Compatibility

 ISAPI Extensions

 ISAPI Filters

 Request Filtering

 Static Content Windows PowerShell 2.0 Windows PowerShell 2.0 is included in

Supported Operating Systems

Operating System Edition Service Pack System Architecture

Windows Server 2008 R2

(full installation)

Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter

Service Pack 1 or earlier

x64

Installing the VMM Self-Service Portal on a computer that is running Windows Server® 2012 is not supported

Additional information

 Installing the VMM Self-Service Portal on a domain controller is not supported

 To use the VMM Self-Service Portal, client computers must be running Internet Explorer 8 or

Internet Explorer 9

 For better performance, it is recommended that you install the VMM Self-Service Portal on a

separate computer from the VMM management server

For information about installing the VMM Self-Service Portal, see Installing and Opening the VMM Service Portal

Self-System Requirements: VMM Database

Hardware requirements

The following tables provide the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for the VMM database These requirements are based on the number of hosts that you manage

Managing up to 150 hosts

Managing more than 150 hosts

Important

Hardware component Minimum Recommended

Processor Dual-Core 64-bit, 2 GHz Dual-Core 64-bit, 2.8 GHz

Supported versions of Microsoft SQL Server

To host the VMM database, VMM supports the following versions of SQL Server

SQL Server for System Center 2012 –

Virtual Machine Manager

SQL Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) Service Pack 1 or earlier Standard, Enterprise, and

Datacenter

SQL Server 2008 (64-bit) Service Pack 2 or Service

Pack 3

Standard and Enterprise

SQL Server for VMM in System

Center 2012 SP1

SQL Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 Standard, Enterprise, and

Datacenter SQL Server 2012 With or without Service Pack 1 Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)

Additional information

 You must use a case-insensitive instance of SQL Server

 When you install SQL Server, select the Database Engine Services and the Management Tools -

Complete features

 If the VMM management server and the computer on which SQL Server runs are not members of the same Active Directory domain, there must be a two-way trust between the two domains

 The name of the computer on which SQL Server is installed cannot exceed 15 characters

 For information about AlwaysOn support and additional information related to SQL Server support,

 Virtual machine templates

 Virtual hard disks

 Virtual floppy disks

 ISO images

 Scripts

 Hardware profiles

 Guest operating system profiles

 Stored virtual machines

greater

Hard disk space Varies based on the number and

size of the stored files

Varies based on the number and size of the stored files

Software requirements

Before you add a VMM library server, you must install the following software